If you want the best diet for your horse, weighing your forage and feed is a must. Weighing hay for your horse lets you feed the right amount and helps control costs. Here’s how to choose and use a hay scale for horses.
Why A Horse Hay Scale and Feed Scale are Important
Weighing your horse’s feed and forage is an important part of feeding a balanced diet.
Why use a hay and feed scale at your barn? There are three main reasons:
- Calorie control and accuracy
- Balancing nutrients
- Reducing waste and cost
Hay Scales for Diet Accuracy
The nutrition in your horse’s feeds is measured by weight. The calorie and forage needs of horses depend mostly on their body weight.
This means that what really matters isn’t the volume of feed like scoops, quarts, or flakes of hay. It’s the pounds or kilograms that matter. This makes feed and hay scales for horses a very important tool in your feed room.
Using a hay scale for horses is important because hay varies a lot in weight compared to volume.
Some horses do best with ad-lib hay, but others need a controlled amount. The only way to know how much your horse is really eating is to use a horse hay scale.
This accuracy can be crucial for weight management and performance success.
Balance Nutrients by Weighing Feed
All feeds and supplements have recommended feeding amounts.
These amounts are listed by weight.
For feeds, this is important because underfeeding means your horse won’t get correct amounts of vitamins, minerals, protein, and more.
A feed scale is crucial to make sure your horse is getting the correct amount of feed. Every barn scoop is different. Feeds can even weigh different amounts from batch to batch!
You don’t need to weigh your horse’s feed or supplements every single day. But to figure out how many scoops you should really be feeding, it’s important to use a feed scale.
After using a feed scale you may find that the recommended amounts for your feeds are higher than you’ve been feeding. Instead of adding more grain, equestrians in this position often consider switching to a forage based diet.
Control Costs by Using a Hay Scale for Horses
Weighing your hay lets you offer the exact amount they need for mental and physical health – but also helps cut down waste.
Most horses need from 1.5 to 2.5% of their body weight in forage each day. The exact amount depends on their lifestyle, other feeds, and health.
Calculating the right amount and weighing your hay regularly is the only way to know that they’re getting the right amount and not offering too much.
Forage should be available at all times for good mental and gut health. So a horse hay scale plus a good slow feed hay net gives you an edge on cutting waste while keeping your horse happy and healthy.
What Barn Scales Do You Need?
If you’ve never shopped for hay or feed scales before, the choice can be overwhelming.
Let’s start with the difference between a horse hay scale, feed scale, and supplement scale.
At the end, we’ll cover what options make a scale a good buy for equine use and what your budget should be.
A good barn should have three types:
- A large capacity hanging or platform horse hay scale
- A medium scale for feed buckets
- A small drug scale for medicines or supplements
Here are the different styles on the market and how to use them.
Horse Hay Scales: Different Types
A hay scale for horses can come in two styles: hanging and platform.
Hanging Hay Scales
Hanging scales look like a small box with a digital display and a hook at the top and bottom.
Connect the top hook to a rafter or ceiling joist of your barn. You can also hold it in your hand.
Attach whatever you want to weigh to the bottom hook. It’s absolutely perfect for hay nets.
There’s more info on using hanging scales for in the complete guide to using hay nets. You can also use hanging scales for feed buckets – so versatile!
Hanging scales are also very budget friendly. They’re overall the best hay scale for most stables.
Platform Scales for Hay and Feed
A platform scale is like your bathroom scale. You put the item on the scale’s plate to weigh.
Platform scales are great for weighing buckets of grain.
If your stable doesn’t use hay nets, platform scales can also serve as hay scales for horses. A veterinary scale like this model from Amazon has a large plate that can handle whole square bales or flakes:
Drug Scales
Small drug scales are used for small amounts of supplements or medicines.
They’re a good choice if you add loose minerals such as copper or magnesium to your horse’s diet.
These scales aren’t expensive. Every barn should have a basic food or drug scale.
Horse Hay Scale Features
There’s a lot of scale selection when buying online. It can be a little overwhelming, but knowing what features you want can help you choose the best scale for your barn.
Minimum and Maximum Weight
All scales have a maximum weight capacity. This is the heaviest amount they can handle. There’s also a minimum amount of weight needed for the scale to register.
Hay scales for horses should have a capacity of up to a hundred pounds or more. This covers the weight of an entire hay bale, or a bucket full of feed before and after it is weighed.
When buying a scale, make sure it can handle the kind and amount of hay or feed your horse needs.
Scale Interval
The scale’s interval is the smallest unit that it can accurately measure. It’s how precise the scale can weigh.
Horse hay scales don’t need a small interval because you’ll be feeding pounds at a time.
But drugs or supplement scales need a small interval – usually one gram or less.
Cheaper scales are usually less precise. Make sure to read the specs on any scale to ensure it will be accurate enough for your needs.
Horse Hay Scale Options and Accessories
Some scales come with extra features that can improve their use and may be worth paying a bit more for.
Display
A backlit display is a nice feature for horse hay scales or feed scales. If your barn’s lighting isn’t great, a lighted screen makes it easy to see the measurements.
Power Source: Battery or Plug In
Scales can either plug in or use batteries.
Bigger scales like hay scales can usually plug into a wall outlet. Small supplement scales will probably use batteries.
A few scales have both options, so be sure to check when you buy.
Hanging hay scales for horses are usually battery powered, so you can use them anywhere. Just make sure to have extra batteries on hand.
Attachments and Handles
Hanging hay scales can be handheld or hang from a barn rafter.
A ceiling-mounted scale is most convenient. A tie ring plus an old lead rope makes a great weighing station:
Handheld fishing scales, like this one, are excellent if your barn has high ceilings that make it impossible to hang the scale or if you board and aren’t allowed to make any permanent installations.
Horse Hay Scales for Diet Success
Scales are easy to purchase and use once you know what you need for your horse. By choosing the right hay scale for horses you’ll be able to get all the benefits feeding by weigh.
Since you can get a good scale without breaking the bank, there’s no reason not to invest in the best way to accurately measure your horse’s feed and forage.
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